Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Best Orange Cinnamon Cupcakes

You can thank Abby for these incredible cupcakes (sorry, “muffins” yesterday was a misnomer!)

What? You don’t know Abby? Let me introduce you!

Abby has an incredible food blog called Confabulation in the Kitchen. She’s taken the last month off from posting, but that shouldn’t stop you… she has incredibly yummy recipes! I mean all of them… Abby never has a dull recipe or a case of writer’s block…it’s just not fair! I also love Abby because she is wickedly funny, totally southern, a fellow North Carolina girl, and is a truly amazing writer. She’s also quite a photographer! She’s also wonderfully organized (check out the great grouping of recipes on her site!)…. Need I go on?

Last week I was randomly musing through Abby’s recipes, when I saw these delicious orange cupcakes! The title of her blog post, “Hello Sunshine” immediately caught my attention… she has a way of doing that! I had to read on… there was this gorgeous picture of an orange cupcake… I could already smell them baking in the oven! I had to make these!!

Abby’s original recipe came from allrecipes.com… a great site as we all know. I had to do a little tweaking to create a gluten-free version of the cupcakes, and I have to say… and I really don’t mean to brag… but these are the best darn cupcakes that I’ve ever had… BEFORE or AFTER going gluten-free!

If you look really closely, you'll see the little specks of orange zest! Yummy!

Other than changing the flour to a gluten-free variety and adding xanthan gum, my biggest change to the recipe was simply adding cinnamon. The thought came to me that these cupcakes might be similar tasting to Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls, which I was completely in love with before going gluten-free. I didn’t make them often, usually when I had company coming over (I never tried making them from scratch… I was perfectly happy with Pillsbury doing the work..) but they were always so tasty… I think I could have eaten a whole pan myself!

These cupcakes are even better than Pillsbury’s Orange Sweet Rolls, especially with adding a simple orange glaze! I have to admit, they aren't just good for dessert... I've been eating these for breakfast all week! Yum!!

I think one of the reasons these gluten-free cupcakes came out so well is due to separating the eggs, and S L O W L Y folding the whipped egg whites into the batter. This is an art! Take your time… you won’t regret it! If you fold in the egg whites too quickly, you will lose fluffiness which helps these gluten-free cupcakes to rise so beautifully! I think I cried when I saw these cupcakes rising mightily in the oven while baking! I know you folks who are experimenting with gluten-free flours completely understand this epiphany!!

You must make these. Just once… just to see if I’m right… and you know you love using the microplane grater, so grab an orange and get baking!

Cream butter, sugar, and grated orange zest until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Fold in flour mixture, alternating with orange juice.

In another bowl, mix egg whites until stiff and add a pinch of salt. SLOWLY fold whisked egg whites into the mixture. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake pan. You should have enough batter for around 10 cupcakes.

Bake in a preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Try your very best not to over-bake! Gluten-free flours really aren’t nice when they are over-baked!

9 comments:

Now I can say from experience since Carrie was so nice to share with me that these are really good! They were really fluffy! And, you totally can't tell they were GF! I'm definitely going to try to make them at home!

Could you BE any sweeter?! I think not! I'm so glad you enjoyed them - they are awesome, aren't they? And I'm so impressed that you took the time and effort to modify them so you could enjoy them, too. Yay!

I made these the other night! Thank you so much! They are so moist and delicious! They are sweet enough that they didn't even need the glaze. I used fresh oranges from our local Farmer's Market. I also used Pumpkin Spice instead of cinnamon and it worked out very well. These were easy to make and OH SO GOOD! YUMMO!

Susan -- SO glad you like these cupcakes!! This was one of the first recipes that I made gluten free all by myself, and I thought they were just delicious! I'm thrilled they work well for you and I bet pumpkin spice seasoning was perfect for them! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out for you!